Contents

History

In the early and mid-90s, Grey teamed up with guitarist Daryl Hance, a
friend he knew from high school. They moonlighted on nights and
weekends playing at clubs in the Jacksonville area under various
band names and a mixed genre of rock and funk.

Mofro was founded in the late 1990s. Grey first coined the blend
of rhythm and blues, soul and funky rock & roll as “Mofro
Magic” in 1997, based on the continuous southern slang being thrown
around at a lumberyard in Jacksonville where he
worked.

In 1998 Grey was offered a recording contract by the UK label Acid Jazz
Records in London. At the time the label was run by music
business legend Dave Robinson (co-founder of Stiff Records).
Robinson offered Grey a recording contract and encouraged him to
move to London.

In August 1998 Grey left Florida for London but upon arrival
found that the label was involved in an unrelated legal battle that
in turn forced the voiding of their offer. Grey then struck out on
his own by placing ads in Melody Maker and NME for musicians to
play some local shows. The first Mofro show (billed as “Mofro
Magic”) with JJ Grey and Daryl Hance (who had joined Grey in
London) and assorted players from the local London music scene, was
held in January, 1999.

John "JJ" Grey was born in Jacksonville, Florida in October 1967. He was raised on the Westside
of Jacksonville in a tiny community called Whitehouse. He received his first guitar as
a Christmas present when he was 11 years old but the guitar was
destroyed the very morning he got it when a neighbor accidentally
backed over it with their car. Two years later he bought a red Western Auto "True
Tone" guitar (he recently retired this guitar from tour duty) and
an amplifier for ten dollars. “The guitar had only three strings on
it and I eventually, through sheer laziness, gave up on learning
how to play”, stated Grey. The family had an old Lowrey organ and he
spent some time on it before abandoning it as well.

“I realized as a young-un that it didn’t take a whole lot of
effort for me to sing. My aunt and uncle had a gospel group (they
sing background vocals on “The Sun Is Shining Down” on the
Country Ghetto album) they influenced me a lot. That and
when my parents weren’t looking I’d catch local bands play in a
juke joint behind my grandfather’s house in Baldwin (FL). That’s
where my R&B influences first came from.”

Grey has often noted his affinity for Otis Redding, and he frequently sings a
tribute to him during their shows. He also credits his musical
chops to Tony Joe
White, Bill
Withers, Donny
Hathaway, and many of the classic R&B artists such as Sly & The Family Stone. He describes
their music as "front porch soul;" it varies from raw bluesy/funk
to raucous rhythm and blues—a mix that defies any single genre
classification.

While the style of their music was a shared evolutionary effort
by Grey and Hance, Grey is the songwriter/lyricist for all of the
band's songs, as well as the composer. Often, the songs will
reflect stories of his childhood or that of his grandparents or
parents. Others have been known to be about friends or family
members that have taken a wrong turn in life. Others still reflect
on his sense of loss at seeing the rural areas of Florida known to
him and generations of his family but now being suburbanized and
affected by development.

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Early
Albums

While in London, Grey caught the interest of San Francisco label
Fog City
Records in May 2000 and decided to return to Florida, bringing
some of the London players back with him. Along with Hance they
recorded their debut album "Blackwater" at Retrophonics
Studio in Crescent Beach, Florida.

The album, was produced and released by Dan Prothero on his label Fog City
Records. It was well received and was named one of the best records
of the decade by Amazon.com.[2]

Acting as manager and booking agent, Grey booked two full USA
tours on his own and in April 2001 Mofro began their tour to
support “Blackwater. The second run of dates would never be played
as on October 20, 2001 the first night of the second tour leg,
Grey, along with his wife, and a former band mate and friend were
hit from behind at extremely high speed in an auto accident that
nearly claimed their lives. It took almost 6 months of physical
recovery before Mofro was ready to hit the road again but in
February 2002 the band went on with the rest of the Blackwater Tour
dates.

Grey, Prothero, Hance and a new cast of musicians returned in
March 2003 to Retrophonics to record their second release, Lochloosa, named after a
lake Lake Lochloosa near Grey’s home in Florida. As with its
predecessor, “Lochloosa”
also received critical acclaim with Rolling Stone critics’ including the
album on their “Critics' Top Ten Lists. [3].
Immediately after its release in 2004 the band set out on the road
in support of "Lochloosa," playing many festivals including Bonnaroo
and Austin City
Limits Festival continuing to build a live following.

2007-Present

In 2007 MOFRO signed with Alligator Records, released the album
Country Ghetto, and began performing under the name JJ
Grey & MOFRO. The album took 2 years to record because of the
band's extensive touring schedule. Grey has said recently that for
many years people have come up to him after shows and inquired as
to when he was going to do a solo album. Many did not realize that
he is the musical, and lyrical, force behind Mofro, and has been
since its inception.

In an interview with Stuart Gaines of the Mountain
Xpress[4] in Asheville, NC published on February 21,
2007, JJ Grey spoke about "getting comfortable in his own skin,
mirrored in the recent band-name switch to 'JJ Grey & MOFRO,' a
subtle yet telling shift," says Gaines.

Grey said,“for some people [the name change] might not be a big
deal at all, and for a handful it might be a super-big deal—for God
knows what reason. But for me the only thing that made it enough of
an issue to address was that this is the diary of my life, so to
speak, laid out musically.”

The band toured the U.S. extensively in 2007 to promote
Country Ghetto, including 2 weeks in Northern Europe
opening for Los
Lobos.

In 2008, they continued to tour in support of Country Ghetto,
including a jaunt to Australia. In September 2008, JJ Grey &
MOFRO released Orange Blossoms also under the
Alligator label, and produced by Dan Prothero. "Orange Blossoms"
has the distinction from their other albums in that 3 female
back-up singers were used. The band has worked with producer /
engineer Dan
Prothero since their first studio outing, "Blackwater", released in 2001
on Prothero's label Fog City Records.

Taping/Recording

JJ Grey & MOFRO permits and encourages the practice of
taping live shows by audience members and allows non-profit trading
of the recordings. Tapers are not permitted to plug directly
into the soundboard at shows; only microphones are allowed. The
recordings are also permitted to be uploaded to archive.org for
non-commercial use. Copyrights for the recordings are reserved by
JJ Grey & Mofro. [5]